In SQL Server, the @@SERVICENAME configuration function returns the name of the registry key under which SQL Server is running.

No argument is required. You can simply use it in a SELECT statement to return the registry key’s name.

Note that SQL Server runs as a service named MSSQLServer. The @@SERVICENAME function returns MSSQLSERVER if the current instance is the default instance. It returns the instance name if the current instance is a named instance.

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate.

SELECT @@SERVICENAME AS [Service Name];

Result:

+----------------+
| Service Name   |
|----------------|
| MSSQLSERVER    |
+----------------+

In my case, I ran this statement on the default instance of SQL Server, and so MSSQLSERVER was returned.

The return value is nvarchar.